“...like a sort of mystic version of Ultimate Frisbee.”

August 15, 2017 10:40 PM

Pyre is a Game About a Game —But It's Really About Why We Play [Wired] “We pass through the gate leading up to the summit. When we reach the top, the liberation rite will begin. Prismatic light trickles down from on high as we climb and make our preparations. Set our uniforms just so. Put on the ritual masks. Stretch. This is magic, but it's something else, something much simpler: it's a sport. One last match, this one with huge stakes. This is the world of Pyre. The third game by beloved independent developer Supergiant Games (Bastion, Transistor), Pyre is about a magical tournament of sorts called the Rites. The competitors are all exiles, criminals cast out of the civilization of the Commonwealth into the wilds of a land known as the Downside; for the victors, the Rites are a ticket home from isolation, and back into society.”

• “Pyre is a sports game about starting a revolution.” [Kotaku]

“In a worse game, that would be a joke, but Pyre takes both its sports and its politics seriously and combines them in an unexpectedly compelling way. This new game is from Supergiant, the small studio behind the lauded Bastion and Transistor games. Their first was mostly a shooter, their second a strategic sci-fi adventure. The third is a religious sports game. Why not? In Pyre, you control a team of exiles called the Nightwings in the land of Downside, as they participate in a series of religious rites—a snappy, challenging three-on-three variant on basketball using an increasingly wide selection of characters. Early on, you play the rites as sports-based battled between long sections of narrative. Eventually, the game opens up and offers a twist that radically changes how you’ll play.”

• “What happens when you mix basketball, fantasy RPGs and a visual novel? Something special.” [Polygon]

“The rites themselves are a competition between two teams of three, each vying for their chance to return to the Commonwealth with crimes forgiven. The teams are placed on opposite ends of a small map, each with a flame (the titular pyre). A ball of energy appears on the map between the two teams, and your goal is to grab the ball, plunge it into their flame and keep doing so until the enemy team’s pyre has been doused entirely. There’s a lot more going on here than it appears at first. Operating like a magical form of basketball mixed with a MOBA, the rites reveal their depth slowly, unlocking new abilities and character types from match to match. First you learn that running enemies into your aura banishes them from the field for a brief time. Then you learn how to cast your aura forward, banishing opponents in its path. Then you ,about faster or more powerful characters, about their strengths and weaknesses and about dozens of more minor tweaks on the formula over the course of the game’s first six hours or so.”

• “A purgatorial fantasy sport is not the direction I expected Supergiant Games, creators of Bastion and Transistor, to go with their next game.” [Rock Paper Shotgun]

“The ball games themselves are called “rites” and hold a spiritual significance. But it’s also a recognisably sporty tournament. Half of the game sees you pottering about a large-but-limited world map in a wagon, talking to your team members – demons, humans, imps, anthropomorphic dogs – and deciding which route to take according to their sometimes conflicting advice. You often duck into the wagon itself, where characters will reveal their pasts, and where trinkets and useful objects slowly accumulate as you continue your journey. The other half of the game takes place on the field, in locations preordained by the stars. Here’s where you’ll play some holy sports. YEAH. But it doesn’t even matter if you win or lose, the tourney keeps on going. The ball game itself is three-a-side. Each team starts with a pyre of 100 strength. You need to grab the ball (a “celestial orb”) and dive into your opponents flames with it to reduce the fire’s strength by a certain amount. Repeat this until someone’s fire is snuffed out like a cake candle. ”

• “Dazzling and mysterious, this ambitious party-based RPG is a masterpiece.” [Eurogamer]

“What I love about Pyre is how you're never really told what is going on. The storytelling is subtle. It strings a complex world along familiar tentpoles, so you're never completely adrift. But even late into the game, there's always a sense of this place being completely alien. Despite the grim undertones to the main plot, the cast is a peculiarly cheerful bunch save, perhaps, for the horned Jodariel, who is endlessly dour. I won't spoil anything for you, but I will say that the roster you develop is very much multidimensional, and their banter is alternately hilarious and quietly heartbreaking at times. Long before the end comes, you'll want to help all of them home. There's a lot to love here. Everywhere you turn, there's something to appreciate. The music, which I've yet to mention, is stunning, and easily the best soundtrack to come out of the Supergiant Games' studios. I don't have a vocabulary to describe the audio, but I will admit to leaving the game to idle for no other reason than to write by the tune I've selected. (Tangentially, Pyre has the coolest jukebox I've seen in any game yet.)”

• “Rite with the Best of Them” [Game Revolution]

“I went into Pyre completely blind, having no idea what I was getting myself into. Was it going to be like Bastion, or Transistor? Was I going to need an intricate knowledge of Supergiant Games to really enjoy it? Of all the things I expected Pyre might be, I didn’t think I’d be getting anything close to a sports game. While hyperbolic claims that it actually is a sports game miss the mark, to say the least, it’s not a hard comparison to make, and the observation is not unique to any one reviewer. You control a team of three characters ultimately trying to shoot or carry a ball into a circular area of an opposing team of three characters. It’s impossible not to make a comparison to sports, particularly 3-on-3 basketball. That said, even if you just play it as a sports game, it’s a damn good sports game. It’s fast-paced, intricate fun that only gets more in-depth when you add in the decidedly not sports-game elements.”

• “It’s one of the only video games that allows for explicit flexibility in gender expression.” [Motherboard]

“Pyre, a fantasy role-playing game that was released on Tuesday for PlayStation 4, allows players to make their characters gender-neutral and use "they-them" pronouns. While gender-neutral characters aren't a first for role-playing games, it is extremely uncommon. For instance, LongStory, a mobile dating sim, allowed players to be addressed as "he," "she," or "they," as well as have same sex or nonbinary romantic relationships. Unlike LongStory, however, Pyre is a relatively high-profile release. The game is currently featured on the Steam store, and is at the third spot of its "Top Sellers" list. It's also an anticipated release from developer Supergiant Games, which previously created the critically acclaimed games Bastion and Transistor.”

• “A brilliant reinvention of the term “fantasy sports””[Ars Technica]

“Pyre's most unique sports twist is arguably its defend-and-banish system. This works a lot like tackling in physical sports, only with magic. Any character that isn't holding onto the orb is surrounded by a defensive aura of varying size and shape. The aura sometimes disappears, most commonly when you're the orb holder. Touching any enemy's aura results in a brief penalty-box period—anywhere from 3 seconds to 12, depending on your character's stats—that the other team can exploit. If two defending characters on opposite teams have active auras, the character with the bigger aura can bump the other person for a banish. Every character gets a simple suite of default moves. You can pass the orb to a teammate, or just switch if you're defending; shoot a rechargeable laser; jump to leap over boundaries or avoid ground attacks; and dash. There are variations within these moves, too. For example, some characters' lasers have long or wide straight-line bursts, while others behave completely differently. One character's "laser" is actually a bull rush, where they move faster and farther but leave their body vulnerable if they miss. Another character's laser is a deadly, self-destruct explosion—it has a giant, circular blast radius, but the bomber is forced to respawn whether or not it hits a target.”

• “Pyre spins a powerful tale of redemption, religion, and monster dunks” [A.V. Club]

“One of the beauties of Pyre is the way it slowly layers on its complexities. The learning curve to the Rites is the biggest example of its knack for gentle introduction. At first, the matches come off as needlessly simplistic, granting you a starter crew that arrives with only the most basic of abilities. Slowly but surely, new systems arise: arenas with new obstacles and opportunities, a host of new species that all move and attack in different ways, and a customization system that allows you to guide your players’ development. Your characters’ growth is just as key to the game’s plot as it is to their success on the field. As their name implies, the Rites are also a religious pilgrimage, and the primary benefit of participating in them is the slow accrual of Enlightenment (a.k.a. experience points). Managing your team off the field, with various conversations and dialogue choices, then, becomes just as important as their actions in a match.”

posted by Fizz (15 comments total)

So it's Blood of Heroes the Game?
posted by runcibleshaw at 11:24 PM on August 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

The full RPS review was fairly critical, and that plus my experience with the other SuperGiant games turned me off of Pyre. But! SuperGiant always comes out with excellent OSTs, and Pyre's soundtrack really is their best yet. I find it complex and mostly relaxing and very pleasant to work to.
posted by Balna Watya at 11:27 PM on August 15, 2017

Pyre is exactly what you get if you extrapolate the next point on the line through Bastion and Transistor. 70% charm, 30% gameplay. But the 70% is very charming, as usual, and the music is lovely.
posted by value of information at 11:31 PM on August 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Pyre definitely lived up to any expectations I had. I feel, unlike what some have said, that it's absolutely kin to Bastion and Transistor, at least in that it has Supergiant's style all over it - a compelling, unique world that slowly unfolds and never quite reveals all its secrets, and an extremely-honed set of satisfying core mechanics. I beat the game and immediately went through another full playthrough on the next difficulty up, to see what the effects of making different choices would be.

And the way it nonchalantly offers pronoun options is an excellent thing to do, and stands as a role model that I hope future games follow. (You can change your gender setting at any time through the options menu, too, so the game effectively supports genderfluid as well as nonbinary players.)
posted by NMcCoy at 12:01 AM on August 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

Also, Logan Cunningham has an astounding vocal range.
posted by NMcCoy at 12:06 AM on August 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

I kind of liked Bastion but absolutely adore Transistor. I think I'll wait for this one on sale.
posted by Hactar at 6:37 AM on August 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

I like the idea, the premise sounds somewhat interesting. I realize that the following likely doesn't entirely apply to Rite, but it's something that comes to mind....

What is it about stories like The Running Man where they run games where criminals get released? "Hey, we have this prison full of convicts, most of them violent thieves, rapists, murders and the like. Why don't we hold a hyper-violent competition where the most violent and capable of all of them gets to come back into society, sentence commuted, and presumably do whatever got them put away in the first place?"
posted by JHarris at 7:19 AM on August 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Obviously, it's just a way to keep the proles in line, man. The violent criminals out on the streets justify the draconian crackdowns by jackbooted police. Meanwhile, the wealthy can afford private security and live in isolated enclaves, so they have nothing to fear.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:31 AM on August 16, 2017

“Pyre is a sports game about starting a revolution.”

'Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa' is a sports game about starting a revolution. Or perhaps a revolution game about starting a sport?
posted by FatherDagon at 8:13 AM on August 16, 2017 [3 favorites]

What is it about stories like The Running Man where they run games where criminals get released? "Hey, we have this prison full of convicts, most of them violent thieves, rapists, murders and the like. Why don't we hold a hyper-violent competition where the most violent and capable of all of them gets to come back into society, sentence commuted, and presumably do whatever got them put away in the first place?"

Isn't there usually a late reveal that they aren't actually releasing the winner, and instead are just killing them?
posted by Ragged Richard at 8:22 AM on August 16, 2017 [4 favorites]

I loved Pyre. The reading got tedious, mostly because I felt compelled to read every damn line of the Book of the Rites. I think my second playthrough will be greatly enhanced by skipping all that.

I initially thought the music was a step down from Bastion, more in line with Transistor (I really loved that Bastion music). But now, having played through completely, I've got 4-5 of those Pyre tunes on permanent repeat in my head.
posted by gurple at 11:10 AM on August 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Bastion will forever hold a special place in my heart. That's never going to change. With regards to Pyre, I'm enjoying the game far more than I did Transistor. While I enjoy the Transistor universe (music, art, etc), the game-play itself was a bit lacking, wasn't very interesting to me.

Pyre is hitting all of the right buttons. I tried keyboard/mouse but for this kind of "wizard-ball" game-play, the controller feels much better. How are other PC players playing?
posted by Fizz at 11:25 AM on August 16, 2017

*facepalm* Controller! I struggled thru the whole thing playing with the mouse/keyboard... for some reason I didn't even think about using the controller! I usually don't do 2nd playthroughs, but now I am seriously tempted to do it to see how much better it is with the controller, and of course to check out the different choices and to hear the delightful music and voiceovers again.

Plus the added benefit of not having to reread the entire Book of Rites should make it relatively quick. I just wish you could skip the intros to the match to speed things up a bit...
posted by Grither at 11:55 AM on August 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

*facepalm* Controller! I struggled thru the whole thing playing with the mouse/keyboard...

It's one reason why I'm asking PC players. This seems like the type of game that requires the use of a controller. Though maybe there's just a tougher learning curve with mouse/keyboard. One I'm not willing to put up with for the sake of this style of game. With a FPS, keyboard and mouse are the way to go, but this game has more of an arcade feel to it that makes the controller feel more natural.
posted by Fizz at 1:16 PM on August 16, 2017

I haven’t seen - that is to say, felt - a single wrong word yet.

That's an odd way for Tycho to put it, because there are a modest number of actual typos and grammar-os in the game. Not enough to ruin the story, but enough to jolt me out of it at several points.

They had a boatload of text to write for this game, with all the pairwise combinations of character conversations. It's not surprising the copy editing isn't perfect. But it feels like something that should have been fixed in a patch by now.
posted by gurple at 1:47 PM on August 16, 2017